pictures by their special
artists, now on the spot, illustrating the ruin.

Rut there was one piece of additional news about Russell that only the
_Daily Planet_ gave. Let us quote, in order to be perfectly accurate.
The sheet is before us as we write:

"EXTRAORDINARY CALAMITY!

"RUSSELL CUT OFF FROM ALL COMMUNICATION!

"_The citizens of the State of Harrison are wild with
apprehension. As yet we cannot speculate on the nature of this
disaster. Up to this moment no one knows what it is. We will be
honest, and say we know no more than our neighbors. But this
much is assured: Not only is communication cut off within a
radius of twenty miles of the ill-fated city, but it is
impossible to re-establish it at present. There are forces at
work as yet uncatalogued by scientists. There is a definite
circle drawn about Russell, and to cross it means death. Two
men repairing the C. H. & S. F. tracks dropped, smitten by a
mysterious and invisible hand. The white mile post announced
that Russell was twenty miles from the spot where the corpses
of these brave fellows lay. What baneful miasma envelops this
broad area? What is the fate of the thousands within its
borders? Time will tell. Our reporters are on the spot. But as
we go to press we do not know._"

Most people sniffed at this "dead line" as the wildest newspaper canard
of the lot. Many shook their heads. While those who had relatives or
friends or business connections in Russell tried to drown their horrible
suspense as best they could.

The _Planet_, it may be remembered, closed its leading editorial as
follows:

"_We are a Democratic paper, and we had little love for this
baby State and its upstart capital, created solely to guarantee
a Republican majority at the next presidential election. But
when the news that an inscrutable fate had overtaken this
fraudulent State (we may be pardoned for saying that it seems
to us a sort of Divine retribution for political jobbery) party
feeling was washed away in that common compassion that all
Christians feel for their enemies in adversity._"

Who could mistake the diction of the uncompromising but tender chief?

But it happened this time, as so often before, that the _Planet's_
information was true. Again that enterprising daily had made its "scoop"
on the other papers. Its elation was pardona